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Kenya: Huduma Namba Illegal, High Court Declares

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4 years ago

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The High Court has declared the Huduma Namba rollout illegal on grounds of conflicting with the Data Protection Act, 2019.

The ruling comes after Katiba Institute, a lobby group, sued the Interior Ministry, arguing that no safeguards had been given to assure Kenyans that their data will not be abused as the rollout lacked guarantees of theft or misuse of Kenyans personal information.

The lobby group had also argued that the State failed to subject the fresh registration of Kenyans to the Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) — a requirement under the law.

Justice Jairus Ngaah however ordered that government create safeguards to protect Kenyans’ data, as the cards have already been rolled out.

“The government should have conducted impact assessment before rolling out the Huduma Cards, I hereby order for the process to be conducted before proceeding with the rollout,” he ruled.

The assessment is aimed at flagging risks that could reveal breaches of privacy, loss of data, and unlawful use of information like names, date of birth, postcode, and residences. As of next week, Kenyans will start receiving Huduma Namba cards in a gradual rollout.

Katiba Institute argued that the government’s plan to roll out Huduma cards before conducting a data protection impact assessment as required by section 31 of the Data Protection Act.

According to the act, “Where the resulting operation is likely to result in a high risk to the rights and freedoms of the data subject, by virtue of its nature scope context, and purposes, a data controller or data processor, prior to the processing conduct an impact assessment.”